Ministers and their most senior advisers are failing to face up to the consequences of Britain's declining influence and role in the world. Indeed, they do not even recognise that its power and influence is diminishing.

That is the clear, though somewhat muted, message from parliament's joint committee of MPs and peers on the National Security Strategy (NSS) on Wednesday. It chastises in particular ministers' failure to consider the implications for the UK of the way the US, its close ally, is turning away from Europe to concentrate on the Asia-Pacific region, on China in particular.

Ministers and their close advisers, those who attend the weekly meetings of the National Security Council set up by Cameron in 2010, are also attacked for failing to grasp the significance for Britain's defence of Scottish independence. The Trident nuclear missile submarine fleet is based in Scotland.

Ministers are criticised also for ignoring the consequences of the Euro crisis for Britain's national security and for law and order within European countries.

The NSS committee was responding to the government's response to its earlier report on Whitehall's complacent observations on Britain's status in the world. The government said it recognised the rise of new global powers, such as China, India, and Brazil, shifts in the centres of economic activity - away from Europe - and the UK's declining resources. This last was amply demonstrated by the savage cuts in the 2010 Strategic Security and Defence Review and further cuts announced last week in the army, bringing it down to its smallest size since the Boer War - another development ignored by the National Security Council.

Despite all this, the government has asserted that the UK would suffer "no reduction in influence". That, said the parliamentary committee earlier this year, was "wholly unrealistic".

The committee urges ministers and their advisers to address now "fundamental questions about the UK's role in the world, and its relationship with the USA", engage the public in a wide debate, and be "more candid" in facing up to difficult questions.

Senior Whitehall officials still suffer from delusions of grandeur, a state that could damage Britains's future interests. The US shifts its resources and interests to the Pacific, yet Britain's entire defence policy is predicated on the alliance with the US. Experienced and close observers of what is happening across the Atlantic say the European allies - including Britain - now matter very little to the policy makers of Washington DC.

British interests lie increasingly in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East.